New Girl
by AikoTsuki
Summary: When someone moves into town, a whole slew of crazy things happen, including the introduction of a new Animorph.
1. Chapter 1

**For those of you who have read my other Animorph fic, "The Other One," you already know about Tsuki. Well, here's Star! Star is well... I'll just show you that. It's a potential Marco or Ax X OC pairing. Starts after book 25.**

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><p><em><strong>Marco<strong>_

The door to my English class swung open. Chapman strode into the room. "What do you need?" Mr. Tidwell asked.

"Just showing the new girl to her first class."

I didn't see anyone at first. Chapman turned around. "Are you coming inside?"

A teenage girl strode into the room. "This is Es-" Chapman started to say.

"Star," she interrupted.

Mr. Tidwell gestured at a seat next to me. "Sit next to Marco."

She nodded, sliding into her seat. Her short black hair pulled into a spiky ponytail, black choker, red dangly earrings, all seemed to give her a sort of rebel-punk type of look. But those blue eyes, that red hoodie, they seemed to tell another story.

"Name's Marco," I said. "And no, it doesn't end with Polo."

She giggled. "Nice to meet you."

"Hey, are you new around here?"

"Yeah. Just moved in yesterday," she shrugged, giving off a casual, aloof air.

"Well, if you're not too busy unpacking, maybe I could show you around town after school?"

A few hours later, Star and I were hanging out at the mall. As it turned out, she was a foster kid, her parents had died two years ago, same as my mom. But we were avoiding the topic of parents, just enjoying the mall. I'd introduced her to Jake and Rachel and Cassie earlier. Right now, we were talking about movies.

"Oh, my god, that actor is amazing!" Star said. "Tall and dark and sexy."

"And I'm short and dark and cute," I commented.

She laughed. "This has been a lot of fun, Marco. I really-" Suddenly, she froze up. A look of sheer terror burned in her eyes.

I waved my hand in front of her face. "Star? Hey, Star, are you okay? Star!"

She blinked, looking at me. The fear was still in her eyes, but she was trying to hide it. "I... I'd better head home. It's... getting late. Mr. and Mrs. Jonas are gonna kill me if I'm out in the dark."

She stood. She calmly started to walk away for a bit. Once she thought I was out of sight, she started to run.

"What was that all about?"

I turned around. Tobias and Ax- in human morph- were standing right behind me. "I dunno. We were having such a good time, then she freaked out for no reason and ran off. I'm gonna follow her."

"Why don't we come along?" Tobias suggested.

We ran after her. She was trying to get away from everyone, her hair going from black to blond, her eyes going from pale blue to dark green. Soon she ran into the construction site. We hid behind a crumbling wall.

She fell to her knees clutching her head. "No! No, I can't change back, not yet! I'm not even close to the water. Please, help me, sis," she begged.

Another girl stepped out of nowhere, a few years older than us. She knelt next to Star. "Shh. It's okay. Trust me, I had issues my first time too. Salt water, it always helps. Jessica and Mark have a pool don't they?"

She nodded. "Why does it hurt so bad? I thought shape-shifting was supposed to be painless."

"True. It normally is. I think you're just having issues. Any strong emotions?"

Star paused. "Well, umm, there was this..."

The girl laughed. "That explains it. Fear normally triggers transormation. It's part of that whole fight-or-flight thing. Listen, this town is pretty much Controller Central. You have to get used to being around Yeerks, or you're going to have another incident like this, and I won't always be there to help you out. Are you good enough to stand?"

Star nodded. They both stood. Then a swirling blue portal opened and the girl stepped through, the portal vanishing behind her. Star looked around. Her eyes widened with the same fear as before. She started to run, when Visser Three stepped out and grabbed her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here goes nothing!**

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><p><em><strong>Marco<strong>_

The three of us looked at each other. "Tobias, de-morph and go get the others," I hissed.

"What about you two?"

"We'll see what's going on."

Visser Three held the girl tightly. _If it isn't the youngest Seenaaki princess, _he sneered. _I knew they'd send someone to spy on us, but you? They must have been desparate._

"Let me go!" she shouted.

_Hardly. Right now, your powers are under **my **control. You can't do anything._

Ax had demorphed. _This is bad. A Seenaaki... this cannot end well._

"What do you mean?"

_The Seenaaki, well, it's a long story. I'll tell you about it later. _

I nodded. Several Hork-Bajir had stepped out of hiding. Star was still struggling to get away from Visser Three. Tobias had arrived with the others. Ax explained what was going on.

_What should I do with you? Perhaps I should have a Yeerk infest you, eh? Or I could use you as a bargaining tool against your sisters, or just kill you like I did your father, _ Visser Three mused.

"We have to stop him," Jake said. Everyone started to morph.

We were almost done when Visser Three made a decision. _You are a weak member of your people, useless. I suppose I will kill you. _He raised his tail-blade high, about to slice into her. Jake slammed into him, releasing Star. Something had happened, Star wasn't moving. Her eyes were closed, her breathing was ragged.

_Star!_

Cassie and I rushed to Star. _What happened to her? _Cassie asked.

_I don't know! _

_Cassie, Tobias! _Jake shouted. _Get her out of here!_

**_Cassie _**

Marco helped drape Star across my back. I took off out of the construction site, with Tobias flying overhead keeping watch.

_Umm... Cassie?_

_Yes, Tobias? _

_She's morphing._

_What?!_

It was true. Her legs were merging together, forming into a tail. Her body was starting to feel lighter. I could hear her gasping for breath.

_We need to get her to water! _Tobias urged. _There's a stream to your left!_

I ran to the stream, letting Star slide off my back and into the water. She floated there for a moment, before taking off down the stream.

_Wait up! _Tobias and I shouted, running after her.

She stopped, raising her head up out of the water. "Who's there?" she called.

_It's me, Cassie. What happened?_

She sighed. "It's a very long story. You might want to demorph while I talk."

I changed back. "Okay. First of all, what are you? Are you an alien?"

_**3rd Person POV**_

Marco, Jake, and Ax escaped, making it back to the barn. "Where are they?" Jake asked.

"Must be in the woods," Marco said. "Let's go look for them. Ax, you have some explaining to do. What is a Seenaaki? Is it an alien?"

Star laughed. "An alien? As if. My people have inhabited this planet longer than human civilization."

"So you're native to Earth?"

She nodded. "Yes. We used to have an advanced society, one that rivaled even the Andalites. But all of that's gone now."

"What happened to it?"

She had this distant look in her eyes, like she was staring at something far away. "It started about two thousand years ago. My people, the Seenaaki, had recently built ships to explore the stars. We were amazed at what we saw, so much variety, so much life. One of the races we met were the Andalites. We formed an alliance, but we got the short end of the stick."

_We were happy to form an alliance with the Seenaaki, but one that mostly benefited us. We put ourselves in complete control over the Seenaaki. We could control when and how they used their powers, and who else they traded with. _

"Over time, we noticed that we were losing our powers. Our strength was failing," Star said. "Some blamed the Andalites, others blamed the technology we'd developed. So, we left our settlement on one of the Andalite home-world's moons and returned to Earth, where we adopted a much simper lifestyle. I'm not a big fan of Andalites, after all, my people were practically slaves to them for almost a hundred years. They're arrogant, narcissistic bastards."

_Wow, _Tobias muttered.

"Why were you pretending to be human?" Cassie asked.

"Because I was supposed to be spying on the Yeerk invasion and reporting back to my older siblings, the ones who rule our society. Of course, I was a bit freaked out, being surrounded by so many Yeerks, and I ran off. They almost wiped out my people. There used to be thousands of us, all over the world. Now there are less than a hundred."

"There you guys are," Jake said as he made it to the stream with Marco and Ax. The second Star saw Ax, she shrieked and took off faster than anyone could follow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for reading, everyone! Sorry it so long to update, college took too much time away to write. But now that the quarter's done, I'm free!**

**superpony55: no kidding.**

**OutlandishDreamer: It's kind of easy to blame Ax.**

**iceberry2666: sorry it didn't make much sense. Glad you liked chapter 2**

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><p><em><strong>Cassie<strong>_

No one really knew what to do after Star swam off. Rachel wanted to go after her, but she was too fast for any of us. We decided we'd wait and see if she showed up at school again on Monday, then try to talk to her. Little did we know that we wouldn't have to wait until Monday.

The next afternoon, I was in the barn checking on some of the animals. "Mind if I help?"

"Sure." _Wait a second. _I turned around. "Star?" Her appearance had toned down from yesterday. She'd let her hair down, revealing that it was about shoulder-length. She'd gotten rid of the choker and replaced her previous earrings for simple studs._  
><em>

She gave a weak smile. "Hi, Cassie."

"What happened? You just, took off."

"Yeah. I don't do well with Andalites. I have a... bad history with them."

"What happened?"

She looked away. I figured I'd let her talk about it when she was ready.

"Visser Three was right. They _were _desperate to send me. The smallest, weakest member of the royal family. The one who managed to get herself captured, who couldn't do anything when her father was murdered right in front of her."

"Star..."

She sighed. "They couldn't spare anyone else. Kat and Llyr are busy helping everyone rebuild, and the twins are training the new military recruits. I mean, everyone can read minds, but we're the only ones who can tell which minds belong to which species."

"Is that why you were sent here? To spy on the Yeerks?"

She nodded. "I was doing okay, at least until I started hearing things from the Yeerk pool."

That sounded really bad. Just hearing things normally in there was awful enough, much less hearing what everyone was thinking.

"Is that why you froze up at the mall?" Marco asked. He was standing in the doorway with Jake and Rachel.

Star nodded. "Uh-huh."

Tobias flew in. _I saw Star walk in, so I left to go tell the others._

"Are you okay?" Jake asked. "We figured Ax freaked you out, so he's just standing nearby. If you want, he can come in and you can actually meet him."

Star looked like she was about to have a panic attack. "I, uh, well, I-"

"She's not very comfortable with Andalites," I said. "What if he morphed and came in?"

Tobias left to go tell Ax. Ax walked in a few minutes later. Star tensed when he came in, but at least she didn't freak out.

_**Ax**_

I was upset to hear that Star was uncomfortable with my real form. Tobias and the others didn't seem to know why, either. So I morphed into a human so that we all could speak to her.

The moment I saw her, something changed in my body. My heart sped up, my palms felt sweaty, I couldn't think straight. I wanted her to smile at me, but she seemed upset about something.

_Why did you run off at the mall? _Tobias asked.

"I started to change back to normal, which is weird. Normally we're only forced to change back when in water, at least, that's what I was told. Of course, Kat told me fear also triggers a similar response. Since I could hear _everything _going on in the Yeerk pool, I panicked. So I started to change back, which is why I ran off."

"How many of you are there?" Jake asked.

"Well, there used to be a few million. Now, a little less than a hundred. But we're trying to fix that. Kat's been studying our old technology. Part of her plan involves terra-forming Mars for us to live on. Another part, well... it sort of involves a kind of cloning. It would be combining different sets of our own DNA samples, and fusing them together. Instead of making a baby, it would instead create a fully-grown Seenaki."

**_Marco_**

We talked for a bit more. Star could join us, but we all agreed she needed to get used to Ax.

We all left after a while. I caught up to Star.

"So, uh, yesterday was nice. At least, until you ran off."

A slight smile started on her face. "Yeah. That was the first time I'd ever hung out with someone my own age, Seenaki_or _human."

"Well, why don't we pick up where we left off? I know some more places around town I could show you. Do you like roller coasters?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for reading! I learned that being so stressed you make yourself sick is really possible. After spending the week stressing about finals and grades, I managed to make myself sick. Isn't college amazing?**

**superpony55: yeah, it is kinda freaky. I may or may not continue to use that. **

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><p><em><strong>Marco<strong>_

She looked at me. "Roller coasters? I'v never done most human things, so I don't know. What are they like?"

"Fun. Really fun and exciting, but it's best if you go on one with someone else."

"I'm assuming you have a place in mind?" she asked. She was trying to look bored, but I knew she was interested.

"Yeah. But, it's a surprise."

**_Tobias_**

_Ax-man, I think you have a crush on her, _I said. Ax was telling me about what happened while we were talking to Star.

_A crush? What is a "crush?"_

_It's when you like, LIKE someone. I mean, it's more than wanting to be friends. Uh, remember Estreen? I'm pretty sure you had a crush on her._

_Oh._

We spotted Star, who was walking with Marco. _Let's follow them, _I suggested. _Maybe we'll learn more about her._

**_Marco_**

"Can I look yet? I hear a lot of noise. There are a lot of people here, I can feel them," Star muttered.

I laughed. "Okay, you can open your eyes."

She looked around. "So many people... more than at the mall, more than anywhere," she whispered.

I grinned. "There's more than just people here," I said. "Rides, shows, game booths, all kinds of stuff. There's even a zoo. So, what do you want to do first?"

A few hours- and several roller coasters later- Star _finally _wanted to take a break. "Wanna get something to eat?" I asked.

"Okay." She smiled at me. "You're right, Marco. Roller coasters _are _fun. Thanks for taking me here today."

I shrugged. "No problem. But, we're not done yet. It's barely 12:30."

_**Tobias**_

Star _really _liked roller coasters. I was happy when those two finally decided to grab lunch, watching all the roller coasters almost made _me _feel sick. Ax and I morphed into humans so we could listen to them better. Since there was food around, Ax managed to convince me to get him nachos and a soda. We sat at a table next to Star and Marco.

"So, um, what do you guys do for fun?" Marco asked.

Star sighed. "Well, we don't really get a lot of free time. Over the past few years we've gotten more and more like a warrior people than anything else, so most people spar for fun," she said.

"Rachel would love that," Marco laughed. "What about you?"

She shrugged. "Well, Kat managed to hack into you guys' TV channels one time. That was cool. Of course, I do like our oldest form of entertainment- music. We use music for important ceremonies, expressing affection, all sorts of things."

"Have you ever listened to human music?"

"Once or twice. It's not as central to your world as it is ours."

He grinned, leaning in close. "Hey, do you want to know how _humans _show affection?"

I groaned. I had a feeling I knew exactly where this was going. "Ax-man, he's gonna kiss Star," I muttered.

"What? Wha-tuh?" He jumped up. He'd kissed Estreen once, so he had a better idea of what was going on than normal. "Stop it!" he shouted.

Marco and Star looked over at us. "Ax? What are you and Tobias doing here?" Star asked.

Marco glared at us. "They're spying on us."


	5. Chapter 5

**If anyone noticed any mistakes, I happened to get inspiration for the chapter while I was sick. And when I'm sick i almost never think straight.**

**superpony55: sorry about that. And, I'll try to keep the POV's longer. But, I'm glad it made you laugh.**

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><p><strong><em>Marco<em>**

"Spying on us?" Star asked. "Why?" Even though she could read minds, she promised not to read ours- so she was in the dark.

I shrugged. "I dunno. Did Jake send you guys to do this?" They shook their heads. "So why'd you do it?"

"We wanted to learn more about Star," Tobias said.

"By spying on me?!" Star's voice was rising steadily. "We're friends, right? So why couldn't you just talk to me, huh?! Don't you trust me?!" She took off, sobbing.

I shot a glare at them before running after her. "Real smooth, guys."

I found Star by the tigers. She was watching them, crying silently. "Hey."

She looked up, startled.

"Are you okay?"

She looked back at the tigers. "What do you think?" She sighed. "My entire life was spent in our castle. I never knew anyone my own age, my only friend was Kat. Then I met you guys. I hoped I could be friends with you, that we could help each other. I guess I was wrong."

"Hey, don't give up on us so quickly," I said. "We're not _that _bad. Look at me- I'm smart, funny, cute."

She giggled. "Yeah, you are. I guess Ax wouldn't trust me, our people haven't gotten along with his for a few hundred years."

"Makes sense. I have a question- I still don't totally get why Andalites freak you out so much. Did something happen?"

"'Did something happen?' Yeah. We were fighting the Yeerks here ever since they started to invade Earth. They can't infest us, at least not in our real forms, so we were safe."

"How come?"

"We have a layer of skin that protects our ears' openings. Prevents ear infections. Anyways, they'd been fighting us and vice versa. Two years ago they attacked our capital city, about fifty miles of the coast of this town, at the same time they attacked all of our other cities. It was a slaughter, we were so badly outnumbered it was hopeless. They killed my mother that day. As the _actual _heir to the throne, some of the soldiers were trying to get me and my father to safety. They killed the soldiers and took me and my father captive. Visser Three planned to use us as a bargaining tool against my people. He couldn't infest me, I hadn't learned to morph yet. And my dad was too important as he was. But when things weren't going his way, he killed my father right in front of me. I was rescued a few weeks later The entire time, all he needed was me alive, so he had a lot of... fun torturing me."

I didn't know what to say. We'd all been through a lot, Jake's brother was a Controller and Ax's was killed by Visser Three. But this was much worse. Her entire people had almost been wiped out in front of her, and she'd actually seen it when her parents were killed.

"I'm so sorry."

We both turned around. Ax and Tobias were standing behind us.

"How much did you hear?" Star asked.

Tobias shrugged. "Pretty much all of it. I'm sorry for spying on you, it's not that I don't trust you, I swear."

"It's all right." I'd started to notice that Star put up a front around other people, one that she only seemed to let down when she thought she was alone with me. "Just don't do it again." She started to walk away. "I'm going back to my foster parents' house. See you at school, Marco."

**_Ax_**

The next day, I ended up taking out my frustration on a tree. _THWACK! THWACK!_

I was angry at myself. I liked Star, she was a sweet, beautiful girl. The way I felt around her was amazing. But how could she ever feel the same about me? I understood now why she was uncomfortable around Andalites, but that didn't help. I'd betrayed her trust. What if she thought I hated her?

_You OK, Ax-man? _Tobias asked, perching on a branch nearby.

_I am unhurt, _I replied.

_I know that. But are you feeling OK? You seem upset._

I stopped what I was doing. _Tobias? Do you think she hates me now?_

_I dunno. Maybe you should talk to her._

_But she is uncomfortable with me in this form._

He laughed. _She's just fine with you as a human, isn't she? Why don't you go over to her house? Jake told me where she lives._

A few minutes later I was standing in front of her house. It was next to the beach, two floors high with windows that took up most of the walls. A person could probably see everything outside. _Just knock on the door, _Tobias urged. _Tell them you want to talk to Star._

I nodded, doing what he said. An older woman answered the door. "Yes?"

"I want. Wuh-ahn-tuh. To speak to Star."

"Are you a friend from school?" I nodded. "She's in the pool right now. I'll go get her."

"Wait! I know what she is!"

She looked at me. "She said a couple of kids saw her. Come in."

She led me inside. Everything was spread out. The house felt so large and open. I could see the pool. The woman slid open a glass door. "I'll let you kids have some time alone," she said. "Come get me if you need anything."

I stepped outside. She was in her true form. She had long blond hair that floated around her in the water. The lower half of her body was a gold-colored fish tail, and fins sprouted from her elbows and back.

"Star?"

She emerged from the water. "Ax? What are you doing here?"

I was too nervous to focus on the sounds I was making, for once. "Do you... hate me?"

She blinked. "Hate you? I'm upset that you spied on me and Marco yesterday, but I don't hate you."

I laughed, even though I wasn't sure why. "That's good."

"Hey, do you mind if I got out of the water? I'd rather talk to people face-to-face."

"Okay."

As she got out of the water, her Seenaki attributes faded away. Her tail turned into two legs, her fins vanished, her hair went from golden to black. She was wearing much more clothing than when the others morphed as well. She looked at me. "Let's go inside. You wanna see my room?"

She led me to a room on the second floor. I saw a strange item in the corner. "What is that?"

She looked at it. "What? My violin?"

"Violin? Vi-oh-lih-nuh. Lih-nuh. What do you use that for?"

She laughed. "You use it for making music. Wanna hear me play it?"

"Sure."

She picked up the violin and started to play a song. It was quiet and slow, beautiful but it made me feel very sad. I didn't say anything until she finished.

"Pretty bad, huh?" she said, blushing. "I'm nothing like my sisters."

"That was beautiful!" I protested. "But very sad."

She nodded. "It's my favorite piece. I learned it after I was rescued." She looked at the clock. "You have a two-hour time limit, right? When do you need to go?"

"I have seventy-five percent of the morph time left."

"One and a half hours? We've got plenty of time. Would you like to hang out for a while?"

My heart sped up. "Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

**superpony55: Sorry it wasn't very realistic. My brain was still recovering from being sick. But I'm better now!**

**(Bows) Thanks for reading, everyone!**

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><p><em><strong>Cassie<strong>  
><em>

By the time Monday finally came, everyone was wondering about how Star was doing. Marco had told us about what had happened with Ax and Tobias, and no one knew if she was mad at them or not.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Star asked. It was lunch, on 'd been avoiding us Marco and Jake were sitting at the table next to me and Rachel. I nodded. "Sure."

She looked down at her tray. "My brother wants to talk to me. It's about you guys."

"Okay." She looked scared. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know what he wants, really. He's... unpredictable. He might want to keep you guys away from the fight, or let you be, or do something else. I don't know. But I _do _know that my brother HATES Andalites. Most of us do."

"What about you?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know. I mean, I've heard stories about Andalites, but Ax seems like a nice person. I trust him, and all of you."

At the other table, Jake stood up to dump his tray. As he walked by he whispered, 'Let's talk about it after school."

_**Star**_

It was the next day. I was at the mall, waiting to meet withe my brother. Everyone decided it would be best to see what he wanted. None of them realized the volatile relationship I had with Llyr. I tugged at my skirt nervously. If he got mad...

"Well, don't we look pretty?"

I looked up at the hand extended to me. A young man with reddish-pink hair and absolutely gorgeous grey eyes was standing in front of me. "Aqilus? What are you doing here?" I spotted Marco and Jake on the second floor. I gave a slight shake of my head. _That's not my brother, _I said through the thought-stream. Thought-streams are technically all the thoughts going through the heads of every living creature, but it's also the nickname given to a way of allowing a specific group to hear each others thoughts, similar to thought-speak.

He smiled. "Why, keeping an eye on our king, of course. And getting to see the lovely princess in human form."

I rolled my eyes. "Is it safe to assume that you will be present during all of this?"

He grinned. "Bingo." He pointed. "See? There he is."

I looked over at the man Aqilus was pointing at. He was in his mid-twenties, with blonde hair that was kind of messy, and fierce, thin gold eyes. Llyr, the eldest in the family. Aqilus started waving. "Over here!" he called.

Llyr came over to join us. "Black hair?" he asked. "How pathetic. It's the opposite of your real hair color. You should have stuck with blonde, it looks better. It suits your personality."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded. Now it would begin, asking questions and making comments laced with insults. Llyr and I never got along. Llyr was the perfect child, the one everyone expected to become heir to the throne. But my father chose me. I was more powerful than Llyr, even though I couldn't use it. That was the rules- the most powerful child inherits the throne.

He grinned, ruffling my hair. "Nothing." Anyone watching would think we got along great. Most people didn't know how things were when I was little.

I sighed. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, just this cafe nearby. Kat says it's good."

I think everyone was a bit nervous about the cafe setting. There was a lot less people, it was much easier for Llyr and Aqilus to notice the Animorphs watching the whole thing. We used the thought-stream to decide that Jake and Marco would follow us into the cafe while the others would be nearby, waiting. I had the job of shielding their thoughts from prying minds.

"So, tell me about these kids you've met," Llyr said softly. "Who's the leader? What exactly are they doing? What role does the Andalite play in all of this?"

"Why do you care?" I asked.

"Because I'm the king. We're the ones fighting the Yeerks on this planet. I can't have them getting in my way."

"They've been at it for ages. If they were in your way, you'd know about it."

"I see. Now that they know about us, are they changing their tune? Perhaps they're asking for our weapons, our ships? Wanting information about us, our plans, our actions?"

"They seem just fine as they are. They know what they're doing."

"Do they? If I'm not mistaken, all of them are children, even the Andalite. How could they possibly know what to do? They're too young and inexperienced, like you."

"I'm not inexperienced! I'm just as capable as you!" I hissed. I shouldn't have said that, I should have kept calm and tried to convince him with words. But I didn't. Calling me- or someone else- inexperienced when I know that's wrong, well, that's what makes me snap. "And so are they."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? How about this- I was planning to erase their memories of the invasion, keep them out of it. But if you can beat me in a puguna ingrenia, then they can continue their fight. If not-"

"That's not fair!" I protested. "Shouldn't they be involved in this?"

He smiled. "Now, why would I allow something like that?"


End file.
